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Exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle, but it’s boring. Finding the right activity became an entrepreneurial opportunity for Christina Pappas.
Pappas started a new workout plan last summer when the weather was too rainy for her daily jogs. With just a set of comfortable clothes and enough room to swing her hips, Pappas learned the art of hula hooping.
“Hula hooping isn’t just something kids can do for fun, it’s also a really good form of exercise. When I went to the doctor’s, my pulse and blood pressure were textbook perfect. It’s a really great low-intensity cardio workout,” said Pappas, a senior working toward a degree in printmaking.
Pappas quickly mastered the art of hula hooping. She said it was easier to make mistakes and perfect her technique without an audience. She found that learning to hoop is easiest when wearing the least amount of clothing possible.
“Hooping with just your skin helps you get a better grip on the hoop. When you’re starting out, if there’s a place you can practice in just your underwear, that really will help,” Pappas said.
She will be meeting with University of Maine officials next week to begin the process of organizing a hoop-dance club on campus for the 10 to 15 other people she knows who currently hoop, and anyone else interested.
“To make a club, you need 10 members. I have a few more than that, around 15 interested right now, and we’d have to see if more people get interested if we get the club,” Pappas said.
The benefits of hula hooping go beyond physical and social aspects for Pappas. She has taken her hobby and turned it into something more by creating what she refers to as her own personal fundraiser. Pappas has taught herself how to make her own hoops and has been selling them on campus at craft fairs.
“It’s great, I can rent my own table and advertise my hoops as a business. People really take an interest in it. There’s always a lot of curiosity and positive energy coming from it,” Pappas said.
When Pappas began hula hooping, she looked online to purchase her own hoop and saw that most of them were priced anywhere between $30 and $50.
“I’m on a limited budget, like most of us,” Pappas said.
So she decided she would get materials and make her own hoop. She only needed about a 10-foot section of tubing, but when she discovered it was only sold in 100-foot sections she decided to go ahead and make all the hoops she could and use the excess as revenue.
“I was going to use the profit for a trip I had planned, but that got pushed back, so now I’m pretty much putting it toward the costs of grad school,” Pappas said.
Pappas’ hoops generally range in price from $10 to $30, depending on the amount of materials they require. The greater the amount of tape used, the higher the cost.
“I make the hoops first, then when I’m done I measure how much tape I used and base it off that,” Pappas said.
The hoops are made from irrigation tubing Pappas buys at the hardware store. She cuts the tubing in segments to create whatever size hoop she wants, and fastens the sections together with small hooks. Pappas decorates the tubing with colorful electrical tape. The fancier hoops are wrapped with holographic or glow-in-the-dark tape, and she has used glitter tape for some of her creations.
“It’s nice to make them colorful and fun. I think it makes them a little more personal for the owner,” Pappas said.
The hoops are filled with water, which helps maintain balance while hula hooping. As the hoop swivels about the hooper’s waist, the water moves in a counter-clockwise direction, which helps keep the hoop even and moving in a consistent rotation.
“The water really acts as a counter-balance so you have a little more control as a beginner. Since it’s heavier than a regular hoop, as it’s rotating you can really feel the movement against your body. If you bump it, it isn’t as likely to fall, so it’s especially good for people just starting out,” Pappas said.
Picking the proper hoop is crucial.
“You can’t just go to the store and buy a kids’ hula hoop if you’re really serious about it,” Pappas said.
Some things to keep in mind when choosing a hoop are its weight and size in relation to body shape.
“You have to take into consideration your height; you want something that’s in between your belly button and the middle of your torso. It’s also dependent on your circumference. If you’re a wider person, you can actually get a much taller hoop. If you’re a narrower person, you’ll need a much shorter hoop,” Pappas explained.
The speed that one likes to hoop and the tricks performed are also factors in determining which hoop will be the best fit. Hula hooping reaches far past the most common form of waist hooping, where the hoop is rotated in a circular motion around the mid-section.
Hoop dancing is often seen in choreographed performances, such as the one Pappas will be performing at the International Dance Festival at the Collins Center for the Arts on Feb. 20. There are also a variety of tricks that are popular among the more experienced hoopers.
Pappas is skilled at performing several of these tricks, demonstrating them with ease as she told stories of hooping experiences and explained the best technique for mastering the tricks. She transitioned easily between tricks with names such as The Halo, Isolation, The Vortex and The Screwdriver. One move, called Bunny Ears, involved spinning the hoop on one elbow, rotating it behind her back and onto the other elbow in one fluid motion.
“It looks hard, but it really isn’t the more you practice,” Pappas said as she closed her eyes and gyrated her hips to match the movement of the hoop.
She takes a great interest in explaining the techniques in detail and chatters happily about the process of learning to hula hoop. She is primarily self-taught, but has taken several classes under the guidance of hooping instructor Jenny Carr, who holds classes at the Valance Fitness & Pilates Studio in Bangor.
“You really should at least try it. It’s a lot of fun and it’s simple to learn once you figure out what works best for you,” Pappas said as she swiveled a multi-colored hoop around her waist.
Pappas can be reached at hoopcadenza@gmail.com for inquiries about hoops for sale.
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